CAST and ASIAS receive HIGH recognition from Av Week

Award goes to Industry/FAA collaborative effort

Data-Based, Proactive Regimen shows Significant Safety Gains

Aviation Week, on March 1,2018 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC., honored the winners of the 61st Annual Laureate Awards, honoring extraordinary achievements in the global aerospace arena. Thirty-two trophies were distributed and the list reflects the highest levels of achievement in defense, space, business, commercial, lifetime and future categories.

The commercial: safety awardee is

Commercial Safety Aviation Safety Team/Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing Initiative
An unparalleled collaboration between government and industry to improve aviation safety. Having
exceeded its first 10-year goal and reduced U.S. commercial aviation fatality risk by 83%, CAST
now aims to reduce the remaining risk (50%) by 2025, leveraging industry data and analytical tools
from ASIAS.

Past recipients have been primarily from the private sector and heavily individuals. The 2018 recognition of CAST and ASIAS, fitting neither past profile, signifies Aviation Week’s high regard for these innovative, big data, proactive systems’ contribution to safety. The evidence in support of this conclusion is STRONG.

The FAA seemed pleased by the award issuing a press release:

The Federal Aviation Administration’s Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety and CAST Co-Chair Ali Bahrami will attend
the ceremony.
CAST and ASIAS represent a long-standing commitment to building safety partnerships between government and industry that
focus on pursuing safety improvements in a collaborative and proactive manner. The work of CAST has been extremely successful
in the United States. CAST’s voluntary adoption of the most promising safety enhancements, along with new aircraft, improved
regulations, and other activities, reduced the fatality risk for commercial aviation by 83 percent from 1997 to 2008.
The launch of ASIAS in 2008 allowed us to take a more proactive approach to detecting risk and implementing mitigation strategies
before accidents or serious incidents occur. The collaboration between government and industry, at all levels, has been instrumental
to improving aviation safety, and our continued success depends on these strong partnerships built on trust and the ability to share
and protect voluntarily provided safety information. In the United States, there has not been a fatality in commercial passenger
operations since February 2009, with more than 5 billion passengers transported safely in commercial passenger service.

Oddly enough, neither A4A nor RAA, the primary participants and beneficiaries of CAST and ASIAS, commented on the award, but AIA, which represents the manufacturers of these aircraft, did, complementing the FAA on initiating this safety critical program:

…The panel of judges recognized CAST and ASIAS for “an unparalleled collaboration between government and industry to improve aviation safety.”
“We applaud the work of the CAST/ASIAS initiative and the recognition of its accomplishments by the Aviation Week Network,” said AIA President
and CEO Eric K. Fanning. “AIA and our member companies will continue to be strong and active supporters of CAST and ASIAS, and look forward
continue our work together in making the world’s safest form of mass transportation even safer.”
CAST was formed in 1988 with two goals: to reduce the U.S. commercial aviation fatal accident rate by 80 percent over a 10-year period ending
in 2007 and to work with airlines and international aviation organizations to reduce the worldwide commercial aviation fatal accident rate. A
key component of this proactive approach is the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system, which enables users to perform
integrated queries across multiple databases, search an extensive warehouse of safety data, and display pertinent elements in an array of useful
formats.
Having exceeded its first 10-year goal and reduced U.S. commercial aviation fatality risk by 83 percent, CAST has recently taken a more proactive
approach, focusing on detecting risk and implementing mitigation strategies before accidents or serious incidents occur. It aims to transition to
prognostic safety analysis, and to reduce U.S. commercial fatality risk by a further 50 percent from 2010 to 2025.
The CAST/ASIAS initiative is successful because it draws expertise and data from all areas of aviation: airlines, manufacturers, crews and labor
organizations. Manufacturers of aircraft, engines, avionics and components are a key part of the work of CAST/ASIAS, helping to populate and
develop the safety databases and working with airlines, flight crews and the FAA to continually develop and implement design and manufacturing
changes that ensure that commercial aviation’s safety record is maintained and strengthened. AIA has been an active member of CAST since its
founding, with AIA staff serving on the Executive Committees of both CAST and ASIAS since their inception.

This is well deserved, and the FAA/industry should be proud. That said, all involved in CAST and ASIAS need to continuously intensify their vigilance about risks and their evolution of solutions under these disciplines.